Description
The 2019 Oude Nektar is a captivating Bordeaux-style blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Petit Verdot. This exceptional vintage has a regal elegance, with aromatics of rose petals, violets, blackberries, raspberries, and a hint of smoky embers. On the palate, it balances a vibrant core of earthy black currant and black cherry fruits with silky, soft tannins. The wine is full-bodied yet light on its feet, with a harmonious finish of bright acidity and saline nuances. Maturation for 20 months in 300-litre French oak barrels (65% new) further enhances the wine’s precision, depth, and complexity.
Food Pairing: Ideal for grilled red meats, lamb, and game.
Awards/Reviews:
97+/100 – Greg Sherwood MW
97/100 – Christian Eedes, Winemag.co.za
Producer Profile
This signature wine is the bedrock of Stark-Conde, showcasing the excellence of the Jonkershoek Valley. Blended with traditional Bordeaux varietals, it reveals rich blackberry fruit aromas, complemented by tea-leaf and cedar wood notes. The palate is polished and full of dark fruit and mocha flavors, with balanced acidity and a long finish, highlighted by the fine tannins typical of the valley. Aged for 20 months in French oak (30% new), this wine is bottled without fining or filtration.
Reviews
Greg Sherwood 97+
There is no doubting that the Oude Nektar 2015 and 2017 were soaring creations of note. But when you taste the 2019 block buster from Rudger van Wyk, you realise that this is yet another epic wine where the vintage and vineyard held hands to give the winemaker something really very special to work with. The aromatics are classical and beautifully straight laced with notes of rose petals, violets, pencil shavings, grilled herbs, black berries and raspberries bursting to the fore before hints of smoky fireplace embers, sweet tobacco leaf, iodine and graphite nuances. An intense full-bodied palate is simultaneously lithe and light on its feet with a striking elegance and a vibrant core of earthy black currant and black cherry fruits embraced by silky soft powdery tannins. An impressively regal Cabernet Sauvignon with a sensual core of fruit, bright integrated acids and a supple, harmonious saline finish. A beautiful wine with class written all over it. Drink from 2025 to 2045+. (Only 3,275 bottles produced.) [Greg Sherwood MW, 05/06/2023]
Anticipated maturity: 2025-2045
Decanter 98
[Decanter, 12/01/2023]
Tim Atkin 97
What a wine! What a vintage! And to think that this stunning site between 550 and 600 metres was replanted after a fire as recently as 2009. Marrying Cabernet Sauvignon with 3% Petit Verdot and 2% Malbec, it’s one of the great Cape reds. Far from a blockbuster, it’s nuanced and refreshing, with incredible perfume of fynbos and cut grass, fine-boned tannins and a long, stony finish [Tim Atkin, 30/03/2022]
